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Laboratory Work on the Shapes of Asteroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J.L. Dunlap
J.L. Dunlap*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona

Extract

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Photometric lightcurves of about 50 asteroids have been obtained over the past 20 yr, yet very little is known about the shape of these objects. Perhaps 100 lightcurves (including photographic ones) of 433 Eros have been obtained with amplitudes up to 1.5 mag. Some authors have attempted to calculate the dimensions of Eros assuming it to be a three-axis ellipsoid. The most recent determination (35 km, 16 km, 7 km) was given by Roach and Stoddard in 1938. In the case of 624 Hektor, amplitudes up to 1.1 mag were observed on lightcurves in which the primary and secondary maxima differed by less than 0.04 mag. Van Houten (1963) noted that for lightcurve amplitudes greater than 0.2 mag, the two maxima were about the same level and differed by 0.04 mag on the average.

Type
Part I-Observations
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 12: Physical Studies of Minor Planets , 1971 , pp. 147 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

References

Coyne, G.V., and Gehrels, T. 1967, Interstellar Polarization. Astron. J. 72, 888.Google Scholar
Dunlap, J.L., and Gehrels, T. 1969, Lightcurves of a Trojan Asteroid. Astron. J. 74, 796–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, J.L., and Gehrels, T. 1971, Minor Planets and Related Objects VIII. Astron. J., to be published.Google Scholar
Houten, C.J. van. 1963, Über den Rotationslichtwechsel der kleinen Planeten. Sterne Weltraum 2, 228–230.Google Scholar
Roach, F.E., and Stoddard, L.G. 1938, A Photoelectric Lightcurve of Eros. Astrophys. J. 88. 305–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar